Drowning My Sorrows
by FinnKaenbyou
Summary: Yachie needs a drink. Desperately. (Yachikei short I wrote as a gift for a friend!)


Yachie had a lot of good things to say about the Firefly.

The bar was almost a miniature, cramped between two towering skyscrapers where penniless spirits worked meaningless jobs. A faint haze of cigarette smoke hung in the air, drifting across the flickering lights on the ceiling. The stools creaked, the jukebox only played one song, and the less she said about the bathrooms the better.

She liked all of it. There was none of the fancy posturing other bars in the Animal Realm had. This place knew exactly what it was – a cozy dive for people to find a good drink. And it was damn good at that.

"Evening, boss."

An otter youkai popped up from beneath the counter, wiping a mug with a dirty cloth. Her whiskers caved in as she fought with a stubborn stain on the bottom of the glass. Unsurprisingly, the stain won.

"We've been over this, Shina." Yachie leaned on the counter, her dragon tail shaking from side to side. "You don't have to call me boss anymore."

"Oh! Right." Shina gulped, toying with the collar of her shirt. "Sorry. Force of habit, y'know?"

Yachie sighed. Shina had been one of her top informants once. For all her awkwardness, she had an uncanny talent for squeezing the truth out of the opposition. Yachie had never figured out how much of her personality was an act, which was commendable in its own way.

"So how's business?" Yachie asked.

"Oh, you know how it is." Shina bit her lip. "Living from tip to tip. Not exactly the comfy retirement I was hoping for."

Yachie's mouth curled upward. "If business goes bad, there's always a place for you back with the Kiketsu."

"Yeah, no thanks. I've had enough getting shot at for one lifetime." The otter gave up on the mug and tossed it under the counter. "What about you? How's the realm domination plan going?"

"Slower than I'd like." Yachie leaned on the damp wood with an elbow. "Saki's still licking her wounds after her invasion plan fell through. But that damned god is trying to spread her territory again."

"Haniyasushin, right?" Shina pulled out another glass and wiped it off. "I've never met her. What's she like?"

Yachie rolled her eyes. Where did she begin with Keiki? Her infantile morality, her refusal to follow the rules, the assembly-line haniwa she called her servants? Just the thought of her made Yachie's stomach churn.

"She's like a gnat inside my brain." Yachie sighed. "No matter how much I try, I can't be free of her for a moment."

"Troubling thoughts, eh?" Shina winked. "I think I can help with that. What'll it be tonight?"

"Finest spirit you've got." Yachie answered without hesitation. "No ice. Muffles the flavour."

The otter nodded, then ducked into the back room to check her supply. Yachie looked up at the ceiling fan, watching it spiral lazily over her head.

"I could be working right now."

She verbalised the thought, and it dug deeper into her mind. It was how the Animal Realm worked – either you worked your ass off, or you were a servant to someone who had. Shina had earned her retirement through years of effort, and even then she was barely scraping by. Someday the money would dry up, and she'd be back in the rat race like everyone else.

For as long as Yachie could remember, she'd taken that as a fact of life. Was it unpleasant? Perhaps, but that didn't make it any less true. She'd devoted herself to work with the Kiketsu, carving her name across the city in bloody strokes. Better to make the most of what was than complain about what wasn't.

Keiki's arrival had changed everything. She preached equality between humans and beasts, and called for an end to the fighting across the realm. All of it was hopeless idealism, of course, but she believed in it with such intensity that it was impossible to simply disregard. If anything, Yachie found that philosophy more troubling than any of the damage the god's idols had inflicted.

"Dammit, it's happening again."

Yachie's tail smacked into the floor hard enough to dislodge a plank. This drink couldn't arrive soon enough. She just needed to drown her brain in alcohol, and then she'd finally be able to think about something that wasn't-

"You called?"

Yachie almost tipped over on the bar stool. Adrenaline flooded her bloodstream as she clambered to her feet, nails primed to slice someone's face open. Sitting at the stool beside her was the woman who had plagued her dreams for weeks.

"Haniyasushin?!" she spat. "How the hell did you get here?"

"I'm a god, if you'll recall." Keiki's smile was insufferable. "I'm summoned by the thoughts of those who believe in me. Thoughts that you've clearly been harbouring."

The words rolled off her tongue with a sickly sweetness. Yachie stood to her full height, refusing to let her rival catch her unawares.

"Don't flatter yourself," she said. "I was planning how to wipe you and your filthy dolls off the face of the realm."

"Is that so?" Keiki raised a mocking eyebrow, then turned to her surroundings in disgust. "Anyway, you could have chosen a nicer place to summon me. I can think of a dozen improvements I'd make to this wretched establishment."

"Watch your mouth." Yachie narrowed her eyes. "A good friend of mine poured my heart and soul into this bar."

"Well she clearly didn't have enough heart to spare." Keiki frowned. "Although I can't imagine anyone would, given how miserable life is here."

The god brushed dust off the corner of her apron, and her stool creaked beneath her. She let out a sharp groan of dissatisfaction, hopping off the seat and pulling a small screwdriver from her collection. It took her a few tries to fit it into the rusted slot, but eventually she was tightening the screws back into place.

"Honestly, how can you be satisfied with this?" Keiki stuck her tongue out as she made more unsolicited repairs to the furniture. "Have you never yearned for a world that's fairer, easier, more supportive?"

Yachie's arms went stiff at her sides. So that was the god's plan. She'd sensed Yachie's wavering beliefs, and she was here to win the dragon over with some elaborate gospel. Maybe that would've worked on some clueless underling, but Yachie was too experienced to fall for something that simple.

If the god had come here to preach, she was going to make a debate of it.

"It would be nice to live in that world, true." She glared at the door to the back room, wondering what had happened to her drink. "It would also be nice if I had all the money in the world, but wishing for that isn't going to make my wallet any fatter."

"Except equality isn't some impossible pipe dream," Keiki replied. "All it takes is for people to believe it can happen."

"And all it takes to ruin it is one person abusing the system." Yachie folded her arms. "Your ideals look nice on paper, but in practice they're begging to be exploited."

Keiki sighed. "This is something that's always bothered me about you beasts. You've become so used to betrayal that you've lost your ability to trust in other people."

"So you're saying I should have more faith?" Yachie smacked her fist into the counter. "Faith won't protect me from a dagger in the back or a bullet to the head. The moment I let my guard down is the moment I die."

"Perhaps you're right." Keiki wiped off the surface of the stool with her apron. "But is a life like yours truly worth living? Red in tooth and claw from the moment you were born?"

Yachie opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out. She'd pondered that exact question in private more than once in recent memory. Of course this damnable woman knew how to strike where she was at her weakest.

"Is this funny to you?" The dragon ground her teeth together. "Do you get a kick out of these word games?"

"Oh, heavens, no. That'd just be cruel." Keiki, satisfied with her repairs, took her seat on the stool again. "I just like you, that's all."

Yachie flinched. "You...like me?"

"You're nothing like that brute of a pegasus," Keiki continued. "That ruffian gets a kick out of violence. She'll do anything as long as it gets her blood pumping. There's a special dark place in my heart for people like her."

She looked over at Yachie, her eyebrows lifting. "You're different, though. You've thought about how this world works, maybe even had ideas on how to make it better. Beneath that stoic facade, there's a woman with genuine vision and drive."

She reached across the counter, placing her hand on top of Yachie's. The god's touch was warm and radiant, like clay that'd just left the kiln. Yachie couldn't remember the last time she'd felt warmth like this.

"If we joined forces, we could change this city for the better." Keiki smiled again, but her expression was more genuine this time. "Think about it. Your business acumen combined with my craftsmanship? We would be unstoppable."

A hot flush spread across Yachie's face. Her eyes were locked on the counter, tracing every flap and wrinkle along Keiki's fingers. It would be a fruitful partnership, undoubtedly. She could only imagine how Kurokoma and Toutetsu would react. Her in cahoots with the evil god of the humans, striking terror into the hearts of anyone who dared to oppose them.

But that was all it was. A fanciful thought. Nothing more.

"You know I can't accept that." She pulled her hand out from under Keiki's. "You're asking me to throw away everything I've ever worked for."

Keiki's shoulders sank. "But think of all the good we could do together. All the lives we could improve, the wonders we could create..."

"All beautiful, I'm sure." Yachie sat up straight again. "But you've forgotten that I'm still a beast at heart. And nothing matters more to a beast than their pride."

Keiki winced, like Yachie's words had torn open her chest. A few seconds later, she rose from her seat with a dramatic sigh.

"What a disappointment. I really thought I'd get through to you today." She shrugged. "Oh, well, there's always next time."

Yachie tilted her head. "Next time?"

"Oh, yes." The god looked down with a knowing smirk. "That pride of yours won't hold out forever. Someday, you'll have no choice but to admit that I'm right." She curtseyed with the hem of her apron. "And when that day comes, I'll be ready to welcome you with open arms."

Then she was gone, as quickly as she'd arrived.

"Wait!"

Yachie reached out, her hands grasping at empty air. Of course Keiki would leave without letting her offer a retort. There was no end to that god's wickedness, she thought to herself.

"Hey, what's going on in here?" Shina finally returned from the back room, carrying a dusty bottle of brandy. "Sorry I took so long. Some weird statue thing was trying to break into the larder."

The dragon could do nothing but stare at the seat next to her. Keiki's promise echoed through her mind, the voice warping into a mocking intonation. It was an assertion of dominance, a vow that Yachie would submit well before the god did.

And worst of all, Yachie couldn't say for sure that it was wrong.

"...It's nothing."

She sat herself down on the newly fixed chair, noting the added grip on the wheels. Tonight had already been stressful enough without her rival messing with her head. It was time to get back to the reason she'd come here to begin with.

"Don't bother putting the bottle back." She flopped forward onto the counter. "It'll take more than one shot to cure what's ailing me."

"Wow. That bad, huh?" Shina opened the bottle, pouring into the cleanest glass she could find. "What the heck happened while I was away?"

Yachie closed her eyes. A familiar face stared back at her.

"I guess you could call it girl problems."


End file.
